NYC Mayor Faces Five Federal Corruption Charges, Decades In Prison

Written By Guest User

Five executions in one week: state of capital punishment in US

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Good morning,

Something to look forward to this weekend: Earth is getting a “mini-moon” starting Sunday!

  • The second moon is actually a small asteroid— dubbed 2024 PT5— that will get pulled into Earth’s gravitational pull for about two months! Yes, it will be there until Nov. 25.

    • The asteroid was first spotted in August by NASA and is set to revolve around Earth in a horseshoe shape before getting spit back out.

    • Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said 2024 PT5 is possibly a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon. In other words, the mini-moon could be a piece of the original moon.

  • Bad news: It’s really little— only about 32 feet and dim. So the mini-moon will be extremely hard to see from Earth without a professional telescope.

Have a good weekend!

Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren

PS: Don’t forget to refer friends & family to subscribe to the Mo Newsletter… you could get free Mo News merch — DETAILS at the bottom of this newsletter!

📌 NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS FACES FIVE FEDERAL CHARGES AROUND BRIBERY & ILLEGAL DONATIONS

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s 57-page indictment was unsealed on Thursday, showing five federal charges related to bribery, wire fraud, and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. He will be arraigned in court today.

  • The Turkish government is said to have bought “favor with a single New York City politician on the rise: Eric Adams” starting a decade ago, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said Thursday. In exchange, Adams is accused of taking official actions on Turkey’s behalf.

The mayor of nearly 9 million people says he is staying on the job while his lawyers fight the charges.

Some of the gifts Adams accepted from the Turkish government.

INSIDE THE INDICTMENT
From free airline tickets to upgraded hotel rooms, prosecutors put the travel perks Adams received at more than $100,000— none of which he disclosed.

  • What Adams got: Turkey's national airline gave Adams tens of thousands of dollars worth of free travel. He flew with the airline even when it was “otherwise inconvenient,” the indictment says. In addition to Turkey, Adams flew the airline to France, China, Sri Lanka, India, and Hungary.

    • One example of Adams’s alleged upgrades include a 2017 trip he took with two others and stayed at the St. Regis Istanbul. The suite they stayed in for two nights would typically cost $7,000, but the indictment says Adams paid less than $600.

    • The coverup: Adams would spend “a nominal fee to create the appearance of having paid for travel that was in fact heavily discounted,” prosecutors say. The indictment also includes text messages from Adams acknowledging that he was deleting other text messages related to the scheme.

      • Before the indictment was unsealed on Thursday, FBI agents raided the mayor’s home and seized his phone.

  • On the campaign side, Turkish business people allegedly donated to Adams’s mayoral campaign by funneling money through US-based straw donors— a way for illegal donations to appear legit.

  • Quid Pro Quo: One of the reported kickbacks was Adams pressuring the New York Fire Department to approve a new Turkish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan despite major FDNY safety concerns. “It was his turn to repay the Turkish Official,” the indictment says, and Turkish officials wanted the building ready for an upcoming visit by the Turkish president.

    • The problem: The building would have failed a fire inspection, prosecutors say. "The FDNY professionals were convinced that they would lose their jobs if they didn't back down,” US Attorney Williams said.

WHAT’S NEXT
Adams said Thursday that he's "not surprised" by the federal corruption charges he faces and that he doesn't plan to resign.

  • "I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments," Adams told reporters. "From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of the city."

  • As governor, Kathy Hochul can remove Adams, one of her allies. She told reporters on Thursday that she is reviewing the charges and that her “number one responsibility is make sure that the people of New York City and the state of New York are served.”

📌 THE STATE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE U.S.

Inmates in five states were put to death over the span of one week— the first time so many people have been executed in the US in a week since July 2003, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center

  • Last Friday, an inmate in South Carolina was put to death. Two more death row inmates, in Missouri and Texas, were executed Tuesday evening. An Oklahoma man on Wednesday was executed followed by the fifth nationwide execution in a week in Alabama on Thursday.

MISSOURI CASE
One of the cases got national attention. Marcellus Williams, convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her, was executed on Tuesday. The victim’s family and a local St. Louis prosecutor actually asked the state to commute his death sentence to life in prison due to the questions about the case, but the Missouri Supreme Court and Attorney General refused to accept the deal.

  • It also comes as Williams’ attorneys attempted to pause the execution on the basis of new evidence that the murder weapon had been contaminated by an assistant prosecutor and an investigator who had handled it without gloves before the trial. Lawyers also tried to prove that the prosecutor who tried the case showed racial jury bias when he struck one potential Black juror partly because he looked too much like Williams, which the prosecutor admitted to in August.

    • The US Supreme Court and governor also declined to intervene.

WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
For two decades, Vice President Harris has opposed the death penalty. Now, her campaign is staying quiet. On the other side, Trump is pledging to expand executions.

  • Under the Biden-Harris administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021. Biden had actually campaigned on a promise to completely abolish the federal death penalty.

    • In 2019, Harris’s presidential campaign website said that she "believes the death penalty is immoral, discriminatory, ineffective and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

    • As San Francisco's district attorney, Harris vowed to "never charge the death penalty." In her 2010 California attorney general campaign, she promised to "enforce the death penalty as the law dictates."

    • Now, Harris and her team are dodging questions about the issue.

  • Trump has called for the death penalty against drug dealers, saying this summer that, “you’ll never solve the problem without the death penalty.” He’s called for speedier trials without the appeals process.

    • Right now, capital punishment can only be used on people convicted of capital offenses: murder, treason, genocide, or the killing or kidnapping of a Congressman, the President, or a Supreme Court justice.

    • Following a 17-year hiatus, Trump’s last six months in the White House saw 13 federal executions.

  • While the use of the death penalty is gradually decreasing in America, more than half of US adults favor its use on people convicted of murder. However, 78% of Americans note that there is some risk of innocent people being put to death.

    • Research has shown that murder rates are lower in states that do not execute criminals. Since 1973, at least 200 people sentenced to death were later exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 Helene makes landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane (AP)

📌 Melania Trump says Democrats, media fostered threats against her husband in rare interview (ABC NEWS)

📌 Benghazi ‘mastermind’ Ahmed Abu Khatallah resentenced to 28 years in prison (CNN)

📌 Americans blame politicians for misinformation (AXIOS)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 US and allies call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah (AP)

📌 Israel kills Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike, Netanyahu vows to continue 'with full force' (ABC NEWS)

📌 Biden pledges $7.9B in military aid to Ukraine ahead of Zelenskyy meeting (POLITICO)

📌 Japanese man acquitted of 1966 murders after 45 years on death row (REUTERS)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 Lawmakers push for accountability after 10th death linked to Boar’s Head listeria outbreak (CBS NEWS)

📌 Why thieves aren't targeting EVs (AXIOS)

📌 Southwest reveals when and how it will get rid of open seating (CNN)

📌 OpenAI to remove non-profit control and give Sam Altman equity (REUTERS)

📌 CNN plans to paywall news content starting next month (THE WRAP)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Macklemore clarifies anti-American remark made at pro-Palestine concert in Seattle: 'Sometimes I slip up' (USA TODAY)

📌 Cardi B calls out estranged husband Offset as he accuses her of cheating while pregnant (E!)

📌 Lana Del Rey obtains marriage license to wed alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene (PEOPLE)

📌 Attendees call ‘Bridgerton’-inspired ball in Michigan a chaotic disappointment (NBC NEWS)

🎉 CHEERS TO THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

Guest User
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